Department of Justice Plans to Cut Two-Thirds of ATF’s IOI Firearm Inspectors

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The Justice Department plans to slash the number of inspectors who monitor federally licensed gun dealers by two-thirds, sharply limiting the government’s already crimped capacity to identify businesses that sell guns to criminals, according to budget documents.

The move, part of the Trump administration’s effort to defang and downsize the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, comes as the department considers merging the A.T.F. and the Drug Enforcement Administration. It follows a rollback of Biden-era regulations aimed at stemming the spread of deadly homemade firearms, along with other gun control measures.

The department plans to eliminate 541 of the estimated 800 investigators responsible for determining whether federal dealers are following federal law and regulations intended to keep guns away from traffickers, straw purchasers, criminals and those found to have severe mental illness, according to a budget summary quietly circulated last week. …

News of the plan came as a shock to a work force already reeling from months of disruption. Several frontline agency staff members, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said the cuts would lead to hundreds of layoffs and effectively end the A.T.F.’s role as a serious regulator of gun sales, if they are not reversed by the White House or Congress.

— Glenn Thrush in Justice Dept. to Cut Two-Thirds of Inspectors Monitoring Gun Sales

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16 thoughts on “Department of Justice Plans to Cut Two-Thirds of ATF’s IOI Firearm Inspectors”

  1. .40 cal Booger

    “…inspectors who monitor federally licensed gun dealers by two-thirds, sharply limiting the government’s already crimped capacity to identify businesses that sell guns to criminals, according to budget documents.”

    Really Glenn? Ya think you can show your bias and ignorance any more than that?

    First, the “budget documents” do not say inspectors that “identify businesses that sell guns to criminals.” . Inspectors do not do that, they determine if a FFL is in compliance with requirements or not. Its the criminal investigation portion of ATF that “identify businesses that sell guns to criminals”.

    These are position slots being cut and not all of those slots are occupied by people.

    Second, the inspectors being cut are not all actually people. The Biden ATF inflated the number of positions in an attempt to get a budget increase, the positions were not filled but the ATF just wanted the money. These are bloat vacant slots never intended to be filled, created out of thin air without appropriation by the Biden ATF.

    Third, of the inspector positions that were filled by people many of them were not actually ‘inspectors’ or conducting inspections. They were people, admin types, that were classed as ‘inspectors’ and then put to work to digitize records to build and illegal registry under the guise of ‘inspectors’ to hide the illegal activity. The Biden ATF did this also to inflate their budget.

    So overall, 2/3 of the OI’s – out of those most were just position slots for bloat to get a larger budget and never filled and those that were not actually ‘inspectors’. And also, I admit there may be a few actual inspectors somewhere in that 2/3 but their positions and them will be re-assigned (probably to fill vacant or upcoming vacant inspector slots in the remaining 1/3) , and some of those were retiring or moving on to other agencies or leaving government service anyway so the positions would have been vacant anyhow.

    In other words, most of that 2/3 was just position slot bloat.

    Reply
  2. Hush

    S N W did not post my first comment, perhaps they will post this one:
    A T F is just a nice bunch/gang of jolly good fellows.

    Reply
    1. Hush

      Yep, posted before I could remove my finger off the mouse.
      Makes one wonder as to who can really handle the truth.

      Reply
  3. .40 cal Booger

    Since my first post is in moderation and has not yet appeared….

    “The department plans to eliminate 541 of the estimated 800 investigators responsible for determining whether federal dealers are following federal law and regulations intended to keep guns away from traffickers, straw purchasers, criminals and those found to have severe mental illness, according to a budget summary quietly circulated last week.”

    Now Glenn…. you do a lot of ‘conflating’ in your missive of stupid. First its ‘inspectors’ now its ‘investigators’. They are two different things, as the ‘titles’ imply – one inspects and the other investigates – I explained one in my post in moderation – its two different function parts of the ATF. So Glenn… did ya even bother to do any research or were you really that eager to blast this out into the world to slam the administration in some way? I notice you do the usual, basically, ‘anonymous sources’ type of thing with “budget summary quietly circulated last week” and “Several frontline agency staff members, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retribution, said the cuts would lead to hundreds of layoffs and effectively end the A.T.F.’s role as a serious regulator of gun sales” – ya got anything, like, real to show the public?

    OH, and BTW… its not actually 2/3 of ‘inspectors’, it includes ATF ‘support personnel’ that were filling ‘inspector slots’ but were not actually ‘inspectors’ (or
    investigators’. The term ‘IOI’ can be applied to either ‘inspector’ or ‘investigator’. The media usually gets it wrong and conflates the two. In reality function wise ‘inspectors’ just ‘inspect’ for compliance, these are the guys that show up at FFL’s. ‘Investigators’ are the ones that “identify businesses that sell guns to criminals” – and ‘inspector’ and ‘investigator’ are not necessarily the same people, they are differentiated by function purpose.

    OH, and some of those 2/3 are being cut from ATF and put in DEA – the ‘investigator’ part where they will continue to also “identify businesses that sell guns to criminals” so that capability is not lost as claimed/implied in the missive by Glenn Thrush.

    Reply
    1. .40 cal Booger

      When Even the Prosecutors Call B.S. On Your State’s Gun Laws.

      “Today we turn back to Illinois’ Assault Weapon ban and the current case of Barnett v. Raoul. Washington Gun Law President, William Kirk, discusses yet another amicus brief filed in this case and if you thought that the one from DOJ was unique, wait until you hear who authored today’s memorandum. 35 separate State’s Attorneys (Prosecutors) have now filed an amicus brief wherein they argue that they have no desire to prosecute Illinois residents under a law that they believe is unconstitutional.”

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fj877ktUudA

      Reply
  10. Geoff "I'm getting too old for this shit" PR

    The news I herd was, the ATF lost 800, but another draconian agency is about to get 10,000 new agents…

    Reply
    1. Sam I Am

      If one thinks ATF are rogue agents, the DEA makes them look like 8yr olds. A merger would be a marriage made in heaven.

      Once worked with DEA agents, fund-raising for local charities, and hoo boy. Those guys personified, “Civilians (non-DEA agents) are all criminals who haven’t been caught yet” mantra.

      My impression was that the agents believed people needing social services were always in crime-ridden neighborhoods, and likely needed aid because of their criminal activity.

      Of course, that was thirty years ago. I’m sure sucj luddite thinking is long gone, these days.

      Reply
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